[This is a beautiful
text, resonant with the poetry of the Bible, or rather of the accepted English
translation thereof. It is, however, always useful to verify, so I have
obtained the help of two Hebrew scholars and have looked up other translations;
with the following result:

(9) "It is a
fixed purpose, that thou wilt preserve the true peace; for there is trust in
thee. And yet there are people who believe in the literal inspiration of their
own pet versions!]

There is a good deal
of talk in Theosophical circles in the West about Nirvâna, and much indignant
refutation of the general accusation that its votaries are simply preaching a
pure, or at best but thinly disguised, doctrine of annihilation.

True enough the
objectors outside are as a rule as ignorant, perhaps even more ignorant, of the
matter than its defenders in the Theosophical

ranks. Nevertheless, if we investigate the matter impartially,
we must confess that our championship of the belief, in nine cases out of ten,
contents itself with the somewhat feeble assertion, “Whatever it means, it does
not signify

annihilation.”I do not mean to say that any of us should venture on
the dogmatic formulation of a creed of Nirvâna, or that we should impertinently
add our personal glosses to the traditional formula, the ancient and venerable
though simple statement, "Nirvâna — is", but I do think that we
should have some clear idea of the problem, and be in a position to give some
account of the

matter.

The task I propose to
myself in these papers has no further pretension than the stringing together of
a few notes, which any student can amplify for himself.

There will be nothing
original, nothing dug out from obscure sources. The books I shall quote from
are all easily procurable: they are not the monopoly of scholars, but the
common property of any ordinary student. The restricted number

of students in the T. S. must therefore excuse the
publication of these notes.

The idea of Nirvâna
is not by any means peculiar to Buddhism. Whether or not it is to be found in
the Vedas, we must leave future controversy to decide; that, however, it is the
burden of the teaching of the Upanishads is unquestionable,

and it is entirely credible, if not clearly demonstrable,
that the older Upanishads antedated Buddhism by many centuries.

It is true, however,
that the Bauddhas [Some attempt has been made of late to show that the Bauddhas
of India were not Buddhists, but as far as I can judge with no
success] have brought the

term Nirvâna into especial prominence; but not the idea. The
synonym Nirvâna is more rarely found in the older scriptures, and what
technical term is preferred I am unable to say. There are many phrases
connected with the ideas of Shânti

(Peace), Moksha
(Liberation), Mukti

(Emancipation, sc.,
from the bonds of matter

or re-birth), and
Nir-vritti (Completion, accomplishment, complete satisfaction), which is said
to be confused with Ni-vritti, Returning into the bosom of the Ineffable
(Brahman), which is opposed to Pra-vritti, Evolution or "forth-evolving".

In these notes,
however, with the exception of a few quotations from the Bhagavad Gîtâ and
Vishnu Purâna, I shall confine myself almost exclusively to the Buddhist view
of the subject.

There is no doubt but
that the teachings of Gautama Shâkya Muni, though a protest against the
Brâhmanical literalism of his time, were nevertheless drawn from the esoteric
sources of the Âryan Sanâtana Dharma or Ancient Law. The

Kshatriya teacher
once more tried to bring back the "lower mind" of the race from the
illusions of a degenerate ceremonialism and false mysticism and place it on
itself. Like teachers had done this before, did, have done and will do it
again, when necessity arises, and the purer teachings get overgrown with
ceremonials and dead-letterism. History shows that the effort succeeds for a

shorter or longer
time, and then the "lower mind" falls back into the old ruts, shaped
differently perhaps but of the same nature.

It seems to me that
there was no dispute between Gautama and the orthodox Brâhmans of the time
about the ultimate fact, Nirvâna; what was called in question was the means to
realize that fact.

Setting aside the
question of dates which is still sub judice, the teachings of the Upanishads,
Gîtâ and Purânas are the same as to the fact, and the teaching of Gautama the
Buddha is also similar.

Let us then first of
all select two works out of a regular library, simply as specimens, to show the
so-called Brâhmanical view.

The passages in the
Bhagavad Gîtâ in which the term Nirvâna is found are as follows:

Whose senses are from
every side grasped back from objects of sensation, O thou of mighty arms, his
forth-knowing (Pra-jńâ) is established (drawn back upon its source —
Prati-shthitâ). The man of self-restraint wakes where it is night for all; and
where (all) creatures wake, there for the seeing sage is night. Even as waters
flow into the ocean, which, though being filled, yet remains unmoved, so for
him into whom all lusts enter; he obtains peace(Shânti), not he who lusteth in his lusts (Kâma-kâmî). He who,
abandoning all lusts, lives free from attachments (sense-contracts), free from
all thought of / and mine, free from the feeling of egoism — he goes to peace.
This, O son of Prithâ, is the Brahmic state (Sthiti); he who reaches this is
free from delusion; plunged in this state at the last hour of life he reaches
the bliss

of Brahman
(Brahma-Nirvâna). [Bhagavad Gîtâ, ii, 68-72]The Yogi whose happiness is within,
whose joy is within, whose light is within, he, becoming one with Brahman, goes
to the bliss of Brahman (Brahma-Nirvâna). [The commentator Râmânuja explains
this as the bliss of the direct knowledge of the Self]

The wise ones
(Rishis) whose sins have perished, whose doubts are destroyed, who are
self-restrained, and rejoice in the welfare of all beings, receive the bliss of
Brahman (Brahma-Nirvâna). For the self-restrained, who are free from lust and
wrath, who have curbed their minds, and have knowledge of the Self, the bliss
of Brahman is on both sides (of death). [Ibid, v 23-25]

Thus continually
uniting his Self (Âtmâ — with the Paramâtmâ or Logos), with mind restrained,
the Yogî attains the supreme nirvânic peace (Shântim

nirvâna-paramâm),
whose source is myself. [Ibid, vi, 25]

The view of the
Paurânik writers is the same, as may be seen from the subjoined quotation, in
which the term twice occurs. In the Vishnu Purâna, Keshidhvaja describes the
nature of ignorance, and the benefits of Yoga or contemplative devotion, as
follows:

Travelling the path
of the world (Samsâra) for many thousands of births, man attains only the
weariness of bewilderment, and is smothered with the dust of imagination
(Vâsanâ). When that dust is washed away by the bland (Ushna) water

of (real) knowledge,
then the weariness of bewilderment sustained by the wayfarer through repeated
births is removed. When that weariness is relieved, the internal man is at
peace, and he obtains that supreme felicity (Param nirvânam) which is
unequalled and undisturbed.

This soul is (of its own
nature) pure, and composed of happiness (Nirvâna-maya) and wisdom. The
properties of pain, ignorance, and impurity are those of nature (Prakriti), not
of soul. There [Page 6] is no affinity between fire and water; but, when the
latter is placed over the former, in a caldron, it bubbles, and boils, and

exhibits the
properties of fire. In like manner, when soul is associated with nature
(Prakriti), it is vitiated by egotism (Aham-mâna) and the rest, and assumes the
qualities of grosser nature, although essentially distinct from them, and
incorruptible (Avyaya). Such is the seed of ignorance, as I have explained to
you. There is but one cure of worldly sorrows (Kleshâ) — the

But, indeed, the
problem of Nirvâna is as difficult of solution as that of the Parabrahman of
the Vedântins, the Tao of the Tao-sse, or followers of Lao-tze, the great
Chinese Mystic, or the Ineffable of the Gnostic philosophers. Those who know
how reverently its solution is to be approached, how stupendous is the problem
involved, how it transcends all human intellect, cannot but regret the unseemly
and uncouth manner in which so many magazine and newspaper writers proceed to
columns of misrepresentation and ignorant abuse, speaking of the summum bonum
of the Buddhist as:

The cold hope of
escaping the due rewards of our deeds by losing our sense of personality in an
endless sleep —

as did an apologist,
claiming the name of

Christian, in a late
issue of one of our most important colonial newspapers.

This is a sample of
what has been consistently foisted upon the Western public, with exceptions
almost too rare to be noticed, for a century.

There are, perhaps,
two reasons for this:

(1) the earlier
generations of Orientalists who rushed into generalities from a superficial
knowledge of the subject;

(2) the over -
cautiousness of the Buddhist metaphysicians, who, in fear of polluting the pure
idea with any taint of material conception, have so sublimated the problem,
that the Western mind, less practised in such subtleties, feels so helplessly
out of its depth, that it imagines it has the void of the bottomless pit
beneath it instead of being supported on the bosom of the ocean of immortality.

Perhaps, however, the
newspaper writers and apologists are not so much to be blamed in the face of
the works of the earlier Western writers on Buddhism, for Eugčne Burnouf,
Clough, Tumour, Schmidt, Foucaux, Spence Hardy, Bigandet, Barthelemy
Saint-Hilaire, and others, gave it as their opinion that the Buddhist

philosophers must
have meant by Nirvâna, annihilation pure and simple. Opinions have changed
since then, for Buddhistic study was, in those days, in its infancy in the
West, and is still hardly out of its teens. In fact, if it were the

custom of the Western
Orientalist "to take anything back" — we may almost say that a
recantation has been made. Let us take a very fair summary of the position
assumed by the Orientalists of the old school in matters

Buddhistic. Professor
Max Müller in 1857, in a series of articles entitled "Buddhist
Pilgrims", repeatedly asserted that the meaning of Nirvâna was utter
annihilation, following in this the opinion of Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire. Having

been taken to task,
he defended his position in the following letter to the Times, entitled
"The Meaning of Nirvâna".

The discussions on
the true meaning of Nirvâna are not of modern date, and . . . ., at a very
early period, different philosophical schools among the

Buddhists of India,
and different teachers who spread the doctrine abroad, propounded every
conceivable opinion as to the orthodox meaning of this term.

Even in one and the
same school we find different parties maintaining different views on the
meaning of Nirvâna. There is the school of the

Svâbhavikas, which
still exists in Nepal. The Svâbhâvikas maintain that nothing exists but
nature, or rather substance, and that this substance exists by itself
(Svabhâvât), without a Creator or Ruler. It exists, however, under two forms:
in the state of Pravritti, as active, or in the state of Nirvritti, as passive.
Human beings, who, like everything else, exist Svabhâvât, "by

themselves", are supposed to be capable of arriving at
Nirvritti, or passiveness, which is nearly synonymous with Nirvâna. But here
the Svâbhâvikas branch off into two sects. Some believe that Nirvritti is
repose, others that

it is annihilation :
and the former add, "were it even annihilation (s ű n y a t â), it would
still be good, man being otherwise doomed to an eternal

migration through all
the forms of nature; the more desirable of which are little to be wished for;
and the less so, at any price to be shunned", [See Burnouf, Introduction,
p 441; Hodgson, Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi]

What was the original
meaning of Nirvâna may perhaps best be seen from the etymology of this
technical term. Every Sanskrit scholar knows that Nirvâna means originally the
blowing out, the extinction of light, and not absorption.

The human soul, when
it arrives at its perfection, is blown out, [ “Calm“without wind”, as Nirvâna is sometimes
explained, is expressed in Sanskrit by Nirvâta. See Amara-Kosha, sub voce.

It is pleasant to
quote here verses 238 and 239 of the Professor’s translation of the Dhammapada:

“Make thyself an island, work hard, be wise!
When thy impurities are blown away, and thou art free from guilt, thou wilt not
enter again into birth and decay.

“Let a wise man blow
off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver,
one by one, little by little, and from time to time] if

we use the
phraseology of the Buddhists, like a lamp; it is not absorbed, as the Brahmans
say, like a drop in the ocean. Neither in the system of Buddhist philosophy,
nor in the philosophy from which Buddha is supposed to have borrowed, was there
any place left for a Divine Being by which the human soul could be absorbed.
Sânkhya philosophy, in its original form, claims the name

of anîsvara,
"lordless" or "atheistic" as its distinctive title. Its
final object is not absorption in God, whether personal or impersonal, but
Moksha, deliverance of the soul from all pain and illusion, and recovery by the
soul of its true nature. It is doubtful whether the term Nirvâna was coined by
Buddha.

It occurs in the
literature of the Brahmans as a synonym of Moksha, deliverance; Nirvritti,
cessation; Apavarga, release; Nihsreyas, s u m m u mb o n u m. It is used in this sense in the
Mahâbhârata, and it is explained in the Amara-Kosha as having the meaning of
"blowing-out, applied to a fire and to a sage". [Different views of
the Nirvâna as conceived by the Tithakas, or the Brahmans, may be seen from the
Lankâvatâra, translated by Burnouf, p 514] Unless, however, we succeed in
tracing this term in works anterior to Buddha, we may suppose that it was
invented by him in order to express that meaning of the s u m m u m bonum which
he was the first to preach, and which some of his disciples explained in the
sense of absolute

annihilation. [Chips
from a German Workshop, i. 282-284]

In spite of the
bogey, "every Sanskrit scholar" — which must be a first cousin of the
non-existent Macaulayian "every school-boy" — if we are to believe Professor
T. W. Rhys Davids, the veteran Sanskritist has beaten a retreat from this
outpost, the insecurity of which he probably had in mind in penning the words
which some of his disciples explained in the sense of absolute
annihilation". In treating of the Dhammapada the philological serpent
swallows its own tail as follows:

If we look in the
Dhammapada at every passage where Nirvâna is mentioned there is not one which
would require that its meaning should be annihilation, while most, if not all,
would become perfectly unintelligible if we assigned to the word Nirvâna that
signification. [Buddhaghosha’s Parables, p. xIi, quoted in Buddhism, Rhys
Davids, p 115]

Nevertheless the
professor has fought hard in his retreat, and no one will say that he has yielded
his hands without a brave struggle; witness the skill with which he tries to
parry or, at least, turn aside the deadly thrust from the famous commentator
Buddhaghosha, in the notes of his translation of the Dhammapada.

"Immortality",
amrita, is explained by Buddhaghosa as Nirvâna. Amrita is used, no doubt, as a
synonym of Nirvâna, but this very fact shows how many different conceptions
entered from the very first into the Nirvâna of the Buddhists. [“Sacred Books of the East,” vol x,
Dhammapada, Max Müller, p 9]

A well-fought fight,
no doubt, but in a bad cause, so that we do not regret the final rout of exact
scholarship before the armies of fact.

Of the many writers
on Buddhism, one of the most appreciative is certainly Professor T. W. Rhys Davids;
differing as he does from the conclusions of some of the most distinguished of
his predecessors in Buddhist studies as to the

interpretation of the
term Nirvâna, it will be of interest to summarize his researches on this point.
[See Buddhism, pp 110, et seq]

As he says:

One might fill pages
with the awestruck and ecstatic praise which is lavished in Buddhist writings
on this condition of mind, the Fruit of the Fourth Path, the state of an
Arahat, of a man made perfect according to the Buddhist faith.

But all that could be
said can be included in one pregnant phrase —This is Nirvâna.

Some of the synonyms
given for Nirvâna are:

The Heavenly Drink
(by which the wise are nourished)

The Tranquil State

The Unshaken
Condition (alluding to the "final perseverance" theory)

Cessation (of sorrow)

Absence (of sin, the
four Âsavas)

Destruction (of
tanhâ), and other expressions.

This state of supreme
peace is well described as follows:

He whose senses have
become tranquil, like a horse well broken-in by the driver; who is free from
pride and the lust of the flesh, and the lust of existence, and the defilement
of ignorance — him even the gods envy.

Such a one whose
conduct is right, remains like the broad earth, unvexed; like the pillar of the
city gate, unmoved; like a pellucid lake, unruffled.

For such there are no
more births. Tranquil is the mind, tranquil the words and deeds of him who is
thus tranquillized, and made free by wisdom. [Dhammapada, verses 90, 94-96]

And even if the philological
meaning of the term may be claimed to be "extinction", then:

It is the extinction
of that sinful, grasping condition of mind and heart, which would otherwise,
according to the great mystery of Karma, be the cause of renewed individual
existence.

And again:

The three fires (of
lust, hatred, and delusion) are opposed to Nirvâna,[Fausboll, Jâtaka texts, p 14]It follows, I
think, that to the mind of the composer of the Buddha-vansa, Nirvâna meant not
the extinction, the negation, of being, but the extinction, the absence, of the
three fires of passion.

It is a
"sinless, calm state of mind". It is"holiness — perfect peace,
goodness, and wisdom".

The Buddhist heaven
is not death, and it is not on death but on a virtuous life here and now that the
Pitakas lavish those terms of ecstatic description

which they apply to
Nirvâna, the fruit of the Fourth Path or Arahatship.

The long Tibetan
phrase to express Nirvâna means, according to Burnouf, "the state of him
who is delivered from sorrow", or "the state in which one finds
oneself when one is so delivered" (affranchi). [Introduction ŕ l’Histoire
du

Bouddhisme Indien,
p.19]

From the Chinese
version of the Sanskrit Parinirvana Sűtra, Beal translates:

I (Gautama) devote
myself wholly to moral culture, so as to arrive at the highest condition of
moral rest (the highest Nirvâna). [Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the
Chinese, p 183]

Edkins tells us that
in the biographical section of the History of the Sung Dynasty, there is a
passage which speaks of Nirvâna "as the spirit's 'final home'
(Ch'ang-Kwei, lit. ' long return')". [Chinese Buddhism, p 97]

But, someone may say:
Surely the learned scholars who have leaned to the opinion

that Nirvâna means
simply annihilation, must have had some just grounds for coming to this
conclusion ? They could not all of them have been bigoted religionists, and
would not have been so short-sighted as to have put forward an opinion that
seems to be so easy of refutation.

This is well
objected, and sufficient excuse to lend colouring to some such opinion may be
found in the surface statement of the teachings of the so-called Southern
Church of Buddhism, which is decidedly negative and agnostic in its
presentation of doctrine.

Colonel H. S. Olcott
in his Buddhist Catechism — which has been "approved and recommended for
use in Buddhist schools by H. Sumangala, Thero, high priest of the Sripada and
Galle, and principal of the Widyodaya Parivena", in Ceylon, and

therefore must be
considered as the orthodox teaching of the Southern Church, where, if anywhere,
we should expect to find nihilistic ideas — describes Nirvâna as:

A condition of total
cessation of changes, of perfect rest; of the absence of desire, and illusion, and
sorrow; of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the
physical man. Before reaching Nirvâna man is constantly being reborn: when he
reaches Nirvâna he is reborn no more. [Op. cit. p 29]

Indistinct and almost
totally negative as is this definition it steers wide of the dismal whirlpool
of annihilation. The physical man should mean something more than the man of
flesh, and is probably used in contradistinction to the spiritual man, for the
orthodox Buddhism of the south teaches that even the soul is not immortal.

"Soul", it
considers a word used by the ignorant to express a false idea. If everything is
subject to change, then man is included, and every material part of him must
change. That which is subject to change is not permanent: so there can be no
immortal survival of a changeful thing. [Ibid. p 58]

But why, again,
"material", only? Of the five classes of Skandhas or aggregates,
material qualities are the grossest, and as all the Skandhas are said to be
subject to change and impermanent, this impermanency is made to extend high up
into mental powers, the spiritual man alone crossing the threshold of
immortality. Our understanding of the abstruse metaphysics and psychology of
Buddhism depends vastly upon the ideas we have of the terms "soul",
and

"personality".
Buddhism does not deny the imperishable nature of an ultimate spiritual reality
in man, of a true "transcendental subject", of an immortal changeless
"self", but it discovers the existence of change so far back in the

innermost nature of
man as to entirely destroy the hope of eternal immortality for much that
Western minds regard as the very core of their being. But change is death, and
where there is change there can be no immortality. Thus

distinguishing soul
from spirit or the Self, the immortality of soul is denied. As Colonel Olcott
says:

The denial of
"soul" by Buddha (see Sanyutto Nikâya, Sutta Pitaka) points to the
prevalent delusive belief in an independent, transmissible personality; an
entity that could move from birth to birth unchanged, or go to a place or state
where, as such perfect entity, it could eternally enjoy or suffer. And what he
shows is, that the "I am I" consciousness is, as regards permanency,

logically impossible,
since its elementary constituents constantly change, and the "I" of
one birth differs from the "I" of every other birth.

But everything that I
have found in Buddhism accords with the theory of a gradual evolution

But, indeed, the
problem of Nirvâna is so subtle, that to the uninitiated mind the expounders of
the doctrine may well seem to hold the language of

annihilation, if we
do not hear them out attentively. It will be interesting to reproduce here, in
this connection, the views of H. Sumangala, Thero, the learned Bhikshu who is
so well known and respected in Ceylon, and who is,

moreover, one of the
best Pâli and Sanskrit scholars of modern times.

In the course of a
long interview with Mr. E. D. Fawcett the question of Nirvâna came

up for discussion,
and —

The high priest
expressed his opinion to the effect that the laws of thought do not apply to
the problem. The Brâhmanical idea of the absorption of the Ego into the
Universal spirit was, however, he declared, fallacious, as any such coalescence
involved the idea of cause and effect obtaining in Nirvâna — a state
preeminently asankatha, [A-san-katha, lit, inexplicable] that is to say not
subject to the law of causality. He then proceeded to deny the existence of any
form of consciousness, whether personal or that of coalesced Dhyânic entities,
in Nirvâna: rejecting the most rarefied notion of the survival of any
consciously acquired memories in that state. Subsequently, however, he gave the
lie to the annihilationists by admitting that this state was

comprehensible to the
intuition of the Arhat who has attained to the fourth degree of Dhyâna or
mystic development, and furthermore that the "true self", that is,
the transcendental subject . . . . actually entered Nirvâna.....

I was able to extract
from the high priest the admission

(a) of the reality of
this overshadowing Soul or "True Self", never realizable under the
forms of

the empirical consciousness,

(b) of its capacity
to retain and store away the

aroma of the experiences gleaned in
incarnation,

(c) of its direct
manifestation as intuitive wisdom in the higher states of Dhyâna

(d) of its ultimate
passage into Nirvâna on the break-up of the groups of causally conditioned
Skandhas. [Lucifer, vi, pp 147, 148, 150; Article “A Talk with Sumangala” ]

This doctrine of the
Self is, however, brought out most clearly in Northern Buddhism, to which
belong all the Esoteric Schools. Take, as an instance, the doctrine of the Lin-tsi
School:

Within the body which
admits sensations, acquires knowledge, thinks, and acts, there is the
"true man without a position", Wu-wei-chen-jen.

He makes himself
clearly visible; not the thinnest separating film hides him. Why do you not
recognize him ? The invisible power of the mind permeates every part. In the
eye it is called seeing, in the ear it is hearing. It is a single intelligent
agent, divided out in its activity in every part of the body ......

What is Buddha ? Ans.
A mind pure and at rest.

What is the law ?
Ans. A mind clear and enlightened.

What is Tau ? Ans. In
every place absence of impediments and pure enlightenment.[Edkins, Chinese
Buddhism, pages 163-164]

The "true man
without a position" is the potential Buddha within every man.

Now what are these
much talked of and little explained Skandhas ? As usual, authorities differ.
Sumangala tells us that :

According to the
Bauddhas, there is no other soul (in living beings) than the five aggregates
(Skandhas). Every living being has the five aggregates. These are the material,
the affectional, the perceptional, the impressional, the mental. The material
are the bodies, beginning with atoms upwards, subject to

changes on account of
their being affected by heat and cold. They are called the material aggregates
inasmuch as they are the aggregates of material objects. The affectional
aggregates are all the pains and pleasures, etc., that are felt or are capable
of being felt. The perceptional aggregates are those that receive the knowledge
of objects by the senses. The impressional

aggregates are all
the impressions of the general, the good, and so on.

The mental aggregates
are all those mental phenomena which lead to acts that are

liked (or to the rejection
of acts that are not liked), [The Theosophist, i.144; being a translation from
the Sanskrit of Sumangala, on p 122, with the corrections from the Errata
printed on p 210]

Sumangala's category
stands, therefore, as follows:

1. Rűpa or material.

2. Vedanâ or
affectional.

3. Sanjńâ or
perceptional.

4. Sanskâra or
impressional.

5. Vijńâna or mental.

Eitel, in his
Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary, translates the term Skandha from the Chinese
logograms as "bundles", "instincts", or "attributes“,
and gives the following list:

1. Rűpa or form.

2. Vedanâ or
perception.

3. Sanjńâ or
consciousness.

4. Karma or Sanskâra
or [ ? moral ] action.

5. Vijńâna or
knowledge.

Rhys Davids gives a
further explanation, adding the classes and subdivisions of each of the
Skandhas. But the recurrence of the same term in several of the groups only
adds to the confusion. His list with the Pâli original terms stands:

1. Rűpa or material
properties or attributes.

2. Vedanâ or
sensations.

3. Sańńâ or abstract
ideas.

4. Sankhârâ (lit.,
confection) or tendencies or potentialities.

5. Vińńâna* [The seat
of Vińńâna is supposed to be in the heart] or thought, reason. [Buddhism, pp.
90 et seq.]

Spence Hardy gives
the following translation of the original terms:

1. Material
qualities.

2. Sensations.

3. Ideas.

4. (Mental and moral)
predispositions.

5. Thoughts [Manual,
p. 424]

Monier Williams in
his dictionary calls the Skandhas "the elements of being or the five forms
of mundane consciousness". We thus see that the translators have no very
clear idea of what the Skandhas are in themselves.

Sumangala's terms
seem to throw most light on the subject, though "sensational" seems a
better

rendering than
"affectional", and "impressional" should, perhaps, be
understood in an active or karmic sense. The Skandhas seem to bear a striking
resemblance to the Vedântic Koshas or Sheaths, but it would require one who was
not only learned in both systems, but who had also some practical experience of
the inner planes of consciousness, to establish a just comparison between them.

It is owing to these
Skandhas, according to Buddhist philosophy, that the sense of " I" or
separateness, wells up in a man. This is the "great heresy", called
in Pâli Sakkâyaditthi, or the "heresy of individuality", as apart
from the Great

Individuality or
Self, and Attavâda, or the "doctrine of soul" as apart from the Self.

Passing now to the
Northern phase of Buddhism, Eitel in his Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary describes
Nirvâna as follows : -

[The Chinese terms
are explained by] separation from life and death (i.e., exemption from
transmigration) ... or escape from trouble and vexation (i.e., freedom from
passion, klesha-nirvâna). ... or absolutely complete moral purity, or . . .
complete extinction of the animal spirits, . . . or non-action.

(1) The popular
exoteric systems agree in defining Nirvâna negatively as a state of absolute
exemption from the circle of transmigration, as a state of entire freedom from
all forms of

existence; to begin
with, freedom from all

passion and exertion,
a state of indifference to all sensibility.

Positively they
define Nirvâna as the highest state of spiritual bliss, as absolute immortality
through absorption of the soul into itself, but

preserving
individuality, so that, e.g., Buddhas after entering Nirvâna, may re-appear on
earth.

This view is based on
the Chinese translations of ancient Sűtras, and confirmed by traditional
sayings of Shâkyamuni, who, for instance,

said in his last
moments: "The spiritual body is immortal".

The Chinese Buddhist
belief in Sukhâvatî (the Paradise of the West) and Amitâbha Buddha is

but confirmatory of
the positive character ascribed to Nirvâna, Parinirvâna, and Mahâparinirvâna.

(2) The esoteric [?]
or philosophical view of Nirvâna is based only on the Abhidharma, which indeed
defines Nirvâna as a state of absolute annihilation.

But this view is not
the result of ancient dogmatology. The philosophical schools which advocate
this nihilistic view of Nirvâna deal in the same way with all historical facts
and with every positive dogma; all is to them Mâyâ, i.e., illusion and
unreality.

He further describes
Parinirvâna as:

The second degree of
Nirvâna, corresponding with the mental process of resigning all thought.

The definition of
Mahâparinirvâna, however, is not attempted by Dr. Eitel. R. Spence Hardy,
though pretending that Nirvâna means annihilation, has an interesting chapter
on the subject in his Eastern Monachism. He seems, however, to cut. the ground
from under his feet by the following passage:

In the
Asangkrata-Sűtra, Gotama has set forth the properties of Nirwâna. It is the end
of Sangsâra, or successive existence; the arriving at its opposite shore; its
completion. Those who attain Nirwâna are few.

It is very subtle,
and is therefore called Sűkshama; it is free from decay, and therefore called
Ajaraya; it is free from delay, the gradual development of events, and
therefore called Nisprapancha; it is pure, and therefore called Wisudhi; it is
tranquil, and therefore called Kshânta; it is firm, stable, and therefore
called Sthirawa; it is free from death, and therefore called Amurta; its
blessedness is great, and it is therefore called Siwa; it is not made or created,
but supernatural, and therefore called Abhűta; it is free from government or
restraint, and therefore called Anîti; it is free from sorrow, and therefore
called Awyâpaga; and it is free from the evils of existence, and therefore
called Tâna. ...

Nirwâna is
Dharmmâ-bhisamaya, the end or completion of religion; its entire

accomplishment.[Op
cit., p. 292]

Spence Hardy also
quotes as follows from the Milinda-prashna:

Nâgasena:

Great king, Nirwâna
is; it is a perception of the mind; the pure delightful

Nirwâna, free from
ignorance, Awidya, and evil desire, Trishnâwa, is perceived by the Rahats, who
enjoy the fruition of the paths.Milinda:

If there be any
comparison by which the nature or properties of Nirwâna and be rendered
apparent, be pleased thus to explain them.

Nâgasena:

There is the wind;
but can its colour be told ? Can it be said that it is blue, or any other
colour ? Can it be said that it is in such a place; or that it is

small, or great, or
long, or short ?

Milinda:

We cannot say that
the wind is thus; it cannot be taken in the hand, and squeezed. Yet the wind
is. We know it; because it pervades the heart, strikes

the body, and bends
the trees of the forest; but we cannot explain its nature or tell what it is.

Nâgasena:

Even so, Nirwâna is;
destroying the infinite sorrow of the world, and presenting itself as the chief
happiness of the world: but its attributes or properties cannot be declared.

Milinda:

You speak of Nirwâna;
but can you show it to me, or explain it to me by colour, whether it be blue,
yellow, red, or any other colour; or by sign, locality, length, manner,
metaphor, cause, or order; in any of these ways, or by any of

these means, can you
declare it to me ?

Nâgasena:

I cannot declare it
by any of these attributes or qualities (repeating them in the same order).

Milinda:

This I cannot
believe.

Nâgasena:

There is the great
ocean: were anyone to ask you how many measures of water there are in it, or
how many living creatures it contains, what would you say ?

Milinda:

I should tell him
that it was not a. proper question to ask, as it is one that

no one can answer.

Nâgasena:

In the same way, no
one can tell the size, or shape, or colour, or other attributes of Nirwâna,
though it has its own proper and essential character. A Rishi [Initiate] might
answer the question to which I have referred, but he

could not declare the attributes of Nirwâna; neither could any
Dewa [Dhyân
Chohan] of the Arűpa
worlds. [Ibid, 295, 297]

The Milinda-prashna
contains much more of interest on the subject, and in a category of comparisons
speaks of Nirvâna as:

Filled with the
perfume of emancipation from existence, as the surface of the sea is covered
with flower-resembling waves.

If we again turn to
China, we find Professor S. Beal, in his lectures on Buddhist Literature in
China, writing on Nirvâna as follows:

Buddha, therefore,
sought out for himself the answer to his own question, "What is that
condition in which renewed birth and death is impossible ? "

He found this in his
theory of Nirvâna. Among other terms used in explanation of this expression in
Chinese Buddhist works is the one I referred to in my first lecture, viz., the
term Wou-wei. In the thirteenth section of the Fo-pen-hing-king the phrase is
used Tan-wou-wei, "praises of Nirvâna".

Wou-wei, whether it
mean non-action or non-individuality, seems to point to a
"breathless" or "non-creative" state of existence. When
desire sprang up in this condition, then sorrow began.

This desire led to
production, and production is necessarily evil. Go back, therefore, "stem
the flood", Buddha taught, destroy the root of desire, and you will arrive
at a condition of original perfection. Whether the term Nirvâna may not be
explained etymologically as signifying a condition of "not breathing forth",
i.e., passive and self-possessed existence, is a question I shall not attempt
to answer.

But on one point
there is agreement in all Buddhist works that have come before me, that Nirvâna
is a condition incapable of beginning or ending(without birth, without death). [Corresponding to the Egyptian
description of

Kneph, —– the ingenerable and immortal]

This conception
developed finally into the worship of the eternal (Amitâyus), a worship still
professed (though ignorantly) wherever this development has been allowed to
progress on the lines of Buddha's original thought.

There is an
expression found in the Chinese as a synonym for the name of Buddha, I mean
Chin yu (the "true that", or "thus"), which evidently
points in the same direction. "The true That" is the state of
existence, ineffable and unthinkable, to which the Buddha has returned. I need
not remind you how this idea of non-breathing existence (i.e., passive and
non-creative being) is

exhibited in the
direct efforts both of Buddhists and Brâhmans to suppress their breath when in
a state of profound religious thought or ecstasy, as

indicating a brief
return to the condition of perfect and unfettered being.

And, in fact, the
modes of thought and expression on this particular point(indicating agreement derived probably from a
primitive origin), common both to Semitic and Âryan, and probably Turanian
nations, is very remarkable. The act of creation is attributed in Semitic
records [And elsewhere.] to the "breath or Spirit of God moving upon the waters".
If it be remembered that the "Spirit of God" may justly be rendered
"a mighty wind" (although from our [The learned Professor is also a
Protestant clergyman ] standpoint there is no need to adopt such a rendering),
this offers a remarkable agreement with the "strong wind blowing on the
waters" explained in Buddhist records .... The condition of
"non-breathing" or "not-blowing", then, is the same as a
condition of non-creative existence, which is supposed to have been the
original state of That, ere desire arose and multiplicity ensued.

It is to this
condition Buddha aimed to return when he taught us to extinguish desire,

and so reach Nirvâna.
[Op. cit.pp 144, 145.]

In the preceding
notes Nirvâna has been several times referred to as the "Fruit of the
Fourth Path" it will be useful, therefore, to add some information on this
most interesting subject, and to follow it up with a brief note or two on

the stages of
meditation, or Dhyâna, that play so important a part in the Buddhistic Gnosis.

There are four Noble
Paths (Ârya-mârga) leading to Nirvâna, each of which has two grades or aspects,

1. Srotapâtti (Singh.
Sowan); lit., he who enters (apatti) in the stream (srota) leading to Nirvâna.
He who has entered this Path will have but seven births to cross before the
attainment of Nirvâna. In this Path he becomes free

(1) from the delusion
of "I" and "mine" (Sakkâya-drishti),

(2) from doubt as to
the Buddhas and their doctrines,

(3) from the belief
in the efficacy of rites

and ceremonies.

2. Sakrid-âgâmin;
lit., one who will receive birth (return) but once (sakrit) more. The candidate
must further free himself from

(4) the desire of
cleaving to sensuous objects (Kâma-râga),

(5) of wishing evil
to others.

3. An-âgâmin; lit.,
he who will not (an) return (be born) again. The last remnants of desire,

ignorance or ungentle
thoughts, which are mentioned as fourfold, have to beeliminated.[Rhys Davids gives the list with
the Pâli equivalents as follows:

1. Delusion of self
(sakkâya-ditthi).

2. Doubt (vicikicchâ)

3. Dependence on
rites (sîlabbata-parâmâsa).

4. Sensuality, bodily
passions (kâma).

5. Hatred,
ill-feeling (patigha).

6. Love of life on
earth (rűpa-râga.)

7. Desire for life in
heaven (ârűpa-râga).

8. Pride (mân).

9. Self-righteousness
(addhacca).

10.Ignorance (avijjâ)

4. Ârya; the Path of
the Holy Ones (Arhats, Arahats, or Rahats). In this Path the Arhat is said to
"see Nirvâna", and his state is thus described :

As a mother, even at the
risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son so let there be good will
without measure among all beings. Let good will without measure prevail in the
whole world, above, below, around, unstinted, unmixed with any feeling of
differing or opposing interests.

If a man remain
steadfastly in this state of mind all the while he is awake, whether he be

standing, walking,
sitting or lying down, then is come to pass the saying "Even in this world
holiness has been found".[Metta Sutta]

On this Path the
Arhat comes into possession of the five great powers, of knowledge, Abhijńâs or
Siddhis.

These are:

1. Divyachakshus; the
power of the divine eye, whereby is procured the sight of any object in any
world (Loka) or on any plane of consciousness.

2. Divyashrotra; the
divine ear, the ability to understand all sounds on every plane.

3.
Riddhi-sâkshât-kriyâ; the power to assume any form or shape; manifestation
(Sâkshât-kriyâ) of preternatural or occult power (Riddhi). Riddhi (Pâli, Iddhi;
Mong., Riddhi Chubilghan) is the same as the Chinese logogram signifying "
a

body (transmutable)
at will," and explained by Eitel as meaning:

(I) Possession of a
[subtle] body which is exempt from the laws of gravitation

and space, and

(2) power to assume
any shape or form and to traverse space at will.

4. Pűrva-nivésa-jnâna
or Pűrva-nivâsânusmriti, knowledge of all prior incarnations of oneself or
others; lit., knowledge or memory of former

tabernacles or
dwellings.

5. Para-chitta-jńâna;
intuitive knowledge of the minds of all other beings. The Chinese categories
generally add a sixth Abhijńâ, viz.:

6. Â-srava-kshaya;
the Chinese equivalent meaning finality of the stream. Â-srava is taken to mean
the "stream" of rebirth, and therefore the full meaning is said to be
"supernal knowledge of the finality of the stream of life".

The Occult Schools
are said to reckon seven of these transcendent faculties.Spence Hardy, in
speaking of the power of the "divine eye", says:

The lowest power is to
be able to see things that are in existence at the time when it is exercised;
but the being who possesses this power may not be able to see that which has
only existed at some previous period, and has passed away or been destroyed;
and he may not be able to discern objects at the very instant of their
formation, from their being so exceedingly minute or momentary. It will,
perhaps be said that this degree of power is of no benefit; but its value is
great, as it enables the possessor to see the thoughts of others, and to know
the consequences of any course of action, whether it be good or evil, so as to
be able to tell what kind of birth will be next received .....

All beings who
possess this wisdom, when they look at the past, do not see the same number of
previous births. The extent of the number seen varies according to the merit of
the individual.[Op. cit, 284-285]

But in spite of the
attainment of these perfections the Rahat is still subject to physical pain; as
Nâgasena says to King Milinda in the Milinda-prashna:

The branches of a
tree are shaken by the storm; but the trunk remains unmoved. In like manner, as
the mind of the Rabat is bound to the firm pillar of Samâdhi by the cord of the
four paths, it remains unmoved, even when the body is suffering pain. [Hardy,
ibid. p 288]

But in order to tread
these Paths in safety there is one indispensable practice, the means whereby
the Buddha himself finally reached enlightenment, and that is “Right

Contemplation".
This is as far removed from

unbalanced mystic
dreaming, uncontrolled astralism or irresponsible mediumistic development, as
are the peaks of Meru from the depths of Pâtâla.

The four and seven
Dhyânic stages are a stupendous development of the spiritual will that can only
be attained to by the unwearying practice of many births. Some of the esoteric
stages are occasionally hinted at, but in the

present notes we must
be content with the exoteric expositions.

J. Barthélemy
Saint-Hilaire, in his Le Bouddha et sa Religion, gives us the following
description of the four degrees of Dhyâna, according to the "Sűtras of
Nepâl and Ceylon", but without any more explicit citation of authority.

The first degree of
Dhyâna is the intimate feeling of happiness which is born in the soul of the
ascetic when he thinks that he has at last arrived at a profound distinction
between the nature of things.

The ascetic is then
detached from every other desire but that of Nirvâna; he still exercises his

discrimination and
reason, but he is freed from all conditions of sin and vice: and the
contemplation of Nirvâna, for which he hopes and to which he

draws nigh, throws
him into an ecstasy which enables him to pass into the second degree.

In this second stage,
the purity of the ascetic remains the same; vice and sin do not soil him; but
in addition, he has put on one side discrimination and reason; and his
intellect, which no longer thinks of other things, but is

fixed on Nirvâna
alone, only feels the bliss of interior contentment, without discriminating or
even comprehending it.

In the third degree,
the bliss of contentment has disappeared; the sage has fallen into indifference
even with regard to the happiness which his intellect was but lately experiencing.
All the bliss which remains for him is a vague feeling of physical well-being
into which his whole body is plunged.

He has not, however,
lost the memory of the states through which he has just passed, and he has
still a confused consciousness of himself, in spite of the almost complete
detachment which he has reached,Finally, in the fourth degree, the ascetic no
longer experiences this feeling of physical well-being, indistinct as it is; he
has also lost all memory; more, he has even lost the feeling of his
indifference; and henceforth free

from every pleasure
and every pain, no matter what its object may be, whether objective or
subjective, he reaches a state of impassibility which is the nearest possible
to that of Nirvâna in this life.

Moreover, this
perfect impassibility does not prevent the ascetic from acquiring even at this
moment omniscience and magic power .....

To the four degrees
of Dhyâna, Buddhism adds four superior, or, if you will, corresponding degrees;
these are "the four regions of the formless world". The ascetic who
has courageously passed through the first four stages is rewarded by entering
into the region of the infinity of space.

Thence he mounts a
fresh degree, into the region of the infinity of intelligence. Arrived at this

height, he reaches a
third region, where nothing exists. But as in this void and darkness it might
be supposed that at least an idea remains which

represents to the
ascetic the void itself into which he is plunged, a last and supreme effort is
necessary, and the fourth region of the formless

world is entered,
where there are no longer either ideas, or even an idea of the absence of
ideas. [Op cit. pp 136-137.]

It is said that those
who are treading the Path, when they feel the span of their present life
drawing to a close, perform Tapas, or, in other words, pass into these stages
of meditation. For by means of this practice they have already

learned to separate
themselves from this lower material vehicle at will, during life, and so have conquered
the terrors of death long before the final order comes from Karma.

Thus it was that
Shâkya-muni passed away, and the stages of meditation or Dhyâna (Pâli, Jhâna)
are described as follows in the closing scene

of the Buddha's life,
as recorded in the Mahâ-pari-nibbâna Sutta, Chapter vi:

10. Then the Blessed
One addressed the brethren, and said: "Behold now, brethren, I exhort you,
saying, 'Decay is inherent in all component things I Work out your salvation
with diligence' ".

This was the last word
of the Tathâgata !

11. Then the Blessed
One entered into the first stage of deep meditation. And rising out of the
first stage he passed into the second. And rising out of the second he passed
into the third. And rising out of the third stage he passed into the fourth.
And rising out of the fourth stage of deep meditation he entered into the state
of mind to which the infinity of space is alone present. And passing out of the
mere consciousness of the infinity of space he entered into the state of mind
to which the infinity of thought is alone present.

And passing out of
the mere consciousness of the infinity of thought he entered into a state of
mind to which nothing at all was specially present.

And passing out of
the consciousness of no special object he fell into a state between
consciousness and unconsciousness. And passing out of the state between
consciousness and unconsciousness he fell into a state in which the

consciousness both of
sensations and of ideas had wholly passed away.

12. Then the
venerable Ânanda said to the venerable Anuruddha: “O my Lord, O

Anuruddha, the
Blessed One is dead !"

" Nay ! brother
Ânanda, the Blessed One is not dead. He has entered into that state in which
both sensations and ideas have ceased to be I "

13. Then the Blessed
One, passing out of the state in which both sensations and ideas have ceased to
be, entered into the state between consciousness and unconsciousness. And
passing out of the state between consciousness and

unconsciousness he
entered into the state of mind to which nothing at all is specially present.

And passing out of
the consciousness of no special object he entered into the state of mind to
which the infinity of thought is alone present. And passing out of the mere
consciousness of the infinity of thought he entered into the state of mind to
which the infinity of space is alone

present.

And passing out of
the mere consciousness of the infinity of space he entered into the fourth
stage of deep meditation.

And passing out of the
fourth stage he entered into the third. And passing out of the third stage he
entered into the second. And passing out of the second he entered into the
first. And passing out of the first stage of deep meditation he entered into
the second.

And passing out of
the second stage he entered into the third. And passing out of the third stage
he entered into the fourth stage of deep meditation. And passing out of the
last stage of deep meditation he immediately expired.[Rhys Davids’ Translation,
“Sacred Books of the East”,

vol. xi, pp 114-116]

In the preceding
paragraphs a rough review of some of the exoteric sources of information open
to those who are unable to read the original languages has been attempted.
Needless to say that there is an enormous mass of matter yet

untranslated, such
as, for instance, the Abhidhamma — the largest of the Tripitaka, or "
Three Baskets" of Buddhist scripture — which contains the metaphysical and
psychological exposition of the supreme problem under

discussion. As these scriptures
are five times the size of the Bible, there is still much for us to wait for.

In the conclusion of
this paper, however, a more difficult task has to be attempted, by collecting
together the more distinct hints that can be gleaned from the writings of H P Blavatsky as to the
nature of Nirvâna, according to the Esoteric Philosophy — or at least that
comparatively small portion of it that H P Blavatsky was allowed
to disclose. The difficulty is that H P Blavatsky has nowhere
distinctly discussed the problem; we have no section, no chapter of a book, no
article of a magazine, from her pen devoted to the subject.

The short note in The
Theosophical Glossary is far from consoling to the eager student, and runs

as follows:

Nirvâna is the state
of absolute existence and absolute consciousness, into which the Ego of a man
who has reached the highest degree of perfection and holiness during life,
goes, after the body dies, and occasionally, as in the case of Gautama Buddha
and others, during life.

This is far less
explicit than H P Blavatsky's
earlier statements, of which, perhaps,

the following
editorial note in The Theosophist (v. 246) is the clearest:

Ordinarily a man is
said to reach Nirvâna when he evolves into a Dhyân Chohan.

The condition of a Dhyân
Chohanis attained in the ordinary course of
nature, after the completion of the Seventh Round in the present Planetary
Chain.

After becoming a Dhyân
Chohan, a man does not,
according to the law of nature, incarnate in any of the other Planetary Chains
of this Solar System.

The whole Solar
System is his home. He continues to discharge his duties in the government of
this Solar System until the time of Solar Pralaya, when his Monad, after a
period of rest, will have to overshadow in another Solar System a particular
human being during his successive incarnations, and attach itself to his higher
principles when he becomes a Dhyân
Chohanin his turn.

There is progressive
spiritual development in the innumerable Solar Systems of the infinite

Cosmos. Until the
time of Cosmic Pralaya, the Monad will continue to act in the manner above
indicated, and it is only during the inconceivable

period of Cosmic
Sleep which follows the present period of activity, that the highest condition
of Nirvâna is realized.

Here we have a hint
that the degrees of Nirvâna are as infinite as the Solar Systems in Cosmos, and
that, therefore, the idea is not such a simple and ultimate fact as exoteric
scriptures, whether Hindű or Buddhist, would lead us to suppose. Nature, in
even the grandest stages of her development, does not leap, but proceeds with
orderly law. From the point of view of the Esoteric

Philosophy, union
with Parabrahman — in the actual ultimate sense of the term — is as absurd as
the Protestant Christian idea of approaching directly to Deity without
intermediaries. In order to make the matter practical, Parabrahman must

be taken as a symbol
of the Solar Logos. This does not in the slightest sense belittle the ideal —
for not even the most transcendental and stupendous concept the human mind can
form of Parabrahman can approach by many a plane to the actuality of the Real
Being of the Solar Logos.

H P Blavatsky in speaking
of this degree of Nirvâna uses the term "ordinarily", and this leads
us to suppose that there are other stages leading up to the Solar Nirvâna; all
the more so, as Laya is given as a synonym of the term in The Secret Doctrine,
and if there are degrees of Laya then it would follow that there are
corresponding degrees of Nirvâna. This is, however, a very difficult subject,
and we must beware of letting our speculations run away with us.

Now, what is Laya;
and how is it identified with Nirvâna ?

Ordinarily it is the
zero-point of differentiation between two planes or states, or, in a more
particular sense, of the matter of a Globe, Chain, System, etc. It is
identified with Nirvâna in the following passages of The Secret Doctrine:

Laya is, in fact, the
Nirvânic dissociation of all substances, merged after a life-cycle into the
latency of their primary conditions. It is the luminous but bodiless shadow of
the Matter that was, the realm of negativeness — wherein lie latent during
their period of rest the active forces of the universe. [i. 140.]

In these passages,
the microcosmic Âtmic condition is evidently referred to. That is to say, that
whether in the case of a World or a Man — which are both microcosms compared to
the Macrocosm, the Heavenly Man, or Ideal Cosmos — it is the Âtmic energy on
the four lower planes of Cosmos. The Âtmic One Life is that into which the
energies of the four lower planes of "differentiated Matter" melt. On
these four lower planes are the seven aspects of Âtmâ, whether regarded as
Globes in the case of a Planetary Chain or as "Principles" in that of
Man.

Now how do these
"aspects" arise? It is Fohat, the Light of the Logos, the Creative
and Emanative Energy of Âtmâ, " the Swift and Radiant One" who, in
the words of the Book of Dzyan:

Produces the seven
Laya centres, against which none will prevail till the Great Day "Be With
Us". [ i. 138]

Now these Laya
centres are called "centres" for lack of a better name. They are not
points, not even mathematical points, [i.145] but conditions.

They are only centres
in so far as they are connected with the Fohatic Power, which is

described in various
places as vortical, a " fiery whirlwind", moving in a spiral,
annular, "zig-zag" path. There are then seven great Laya Centres, but
each one of them on its own plane is a centre within every atom of that
"Plane", "Globe", "Principle", etc..

We have said that
Laya is what Science may call the zero-point or line; the real of absolute
negativeness, or the one real absolute Force, the noumenon of the Seventh State
of that which we ignorantly call and recognize as "Force". [ i,148]

After speaking of
Absolute Laya, " the root and basis of all states
of objectivity and also subjectivity", H P Blavatsky refers to it
as "the neutral axis, not one of the many aspects, but its centre".
That is to say, that the seven Laya Centres, or, to phrase it differently, the
seven vortices sunk into Laya, are "aspects" of the one Great
Creative Force, the Âtmic Energy.

It may serve to
elucidate the meaning, if we try to imagine a “neutral centre" — the dream
of those who would discover perpetual motion. A "neutral centre" is,
in one aspect, the limiting point of any set of senses.

Thus, imagine two
consecutive planes of matter; each of these corresponding to an appropriate set
of perceptive organs. We are forced to admit that between these two planes of
matter an incessant circulation takes place: and if we follow the atoms and
molecules of, say, the lower in their transformation upwards, they will come to
a point where they pass altogether beyond the range of the faculties we are
using on the lower plane.

In fact, for us the
matter of the lower plane there vanishes from our perception — or rather, it
passes on to the higher plane, and the state of

matter corresponding
to such a point of transition must certainly possess special, and not readily
discoverable, properties. Seven such "Neutral

Centres" then
are produced by Fohat.

The above quotations
give us some idea of the nature of these Laya conditions between Planes,
Globes, etc., but it is impossible for us to distinguish the degrees of Laya
from each other. All are Nirvânic states of consciousness for some entity or
other, but we have not sufficient exoteric data to decide the matter more
precisely.

That "none shall
prevail against" the seven great Laya Centres or aspects of Absolute Laya,
until the Great Day "Be With Us" is the statement of the Book of
Dzyan. But we should be careful not to take such statements in too material a
sense. For though the "Great Day" corresponds to a

Solar Pralaya and so
on up to the Cosmic Pralâya, nevertheless its mystery may also be unlocked by the
key of Initiation, where the Day "Be With Us" would stand for the
Final Initiation when the Candidate is clothed in his triple Nirvânic Vesture.

Clad in the triple
Âtmic radiance of the Logos, the Perfected Man can then pass at liberty and in
full consciousness through the Laya Centres that shut off the consciousness of
ordinary man into seven great states, which he cannot unite while he is sucked
into their vortices through desire for

external sensation.

We should also
remember that the great septenary differentiation of consciousness is caused by
the Magic Power of the Great Mind — the Logos. It is this great septenary
"suggestion" of the Mâya of the Logos, that causes us little men to
think there is separateness, and we cannot remove the "suggestion" of
the "Great Hypnotizer" until we become one with him, for he is our
SELF.

The above ideas are
well summed up in the following passage :

In Pralaya, or the
intermediate period between two Manvantaras, it (the Monad) loses its name, as
it loses it when the real One Self of man merges into Brahm in cases of high
Samâdhi (the Turîya state) or final Nirvâna; "when the disciple", in
the words of Shankara, "having attained that primeval consciousness,
absolute bliss, of which the nature is truth, which is without form and action,
abandons this illusive body that has been assumed by the Âtmâ just as an actor
(abandons) the dress (put on)".

For Buddhi (the
Ânanda-maya Sheath) is but a mirror which reflects absolute bliss; and,
moreover, that reflection itself is yet not free from ignorance, and is not the
Supreme Spirit, being subject to conditions, being a spiritual modification of
Prakriti, and an effect; Âtma alone is the one real and eternal substratum of
all — the essence and absolute knowledge — the Kshetrajńa. [ “Knower of
the‘field’” — or knower of the lower
vehicles] It is called, in the Esoteric

Philosophy, the
"One Witness", and while it rests in Devachan, is referred to as the
"Three Witnesses to Karma". [The Secret Doctrine, i, 570]

As, in the Esoteric
Philosophy, there are seven kinds of Laya, so there are seven degrees of
Pralaya, or dissolution of a thing into its original element or condition. This
is quite reconcilable with the exoteric Paurânik fourfold division, by
remembering that the seven are in the fourfold Manifested Universe or, in other
words, on the four lower planes of the ideal Cosmos. We will first of all take
a glance at the exoteric classification, and then see whether we have
sufficient hints to make out the sevenfold division from The Secret Doctrine.

There are, then, four
kinds of dissolution or Pralaya mentioned in the Purânas.

They are called

(1) Naimittika,

(2) Prâkritika,

(3) Âtyantika,

(4) Nitya.

Colonel Vans Kennedy
explains these as:

1. Naimittika takes
place when Brahmâ slumbers.

2. Prâkritika, when
the Universe returns to its original nature.

3. Atyantika proceeds
from divine knowledge, and consequent identification with the Supreme Spirit.

4. Nitya is the
extinction of life in sleep at night.

[Researches into the
Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindű Mythology, p 224, note]

Wilson, however,
describes these Pralayas as:

The first is called
Naimittika, "occasional", or "incidental", or Brâhmya, as
occasioned by the intervals of Brahmâ's days; the destruction of creatures,
though not of the substance of the world, occurring during his night.

The general
resolution of the elements into their primitive source, or Prakriti, is the
Prâkritika destruction, and occurs at the end of Brahmâ's age.

The third, the
absolute or final, Âtyantika, is individual annihilation;[Fitzedward Hall criticizes this expression
of Wilson. “The emancipation of

the Hindűs”, he says,
is not release ‘from all existence’, but from consciousness of pleasure and
pain. The distinction is, at all events, good,

The Bhâdgavata
mentions the fourth kind — Nitya, or constant dissolution; explaining it to be
the imperceptible change that all things suffer in the various stages of growth
and decay, life

and death, [Vishnu
Purâna, Wilson’s Trans, v. 186]

H P Blavatsky mentions
five different kinds of Pralaya in The Secret Doctrine: [
i.172]

1. Between two
Globes.

2. ,, ,, Rounds.

3. ,, ,, Planetary
Chains.

4. ,, ,, Solar
Systems.

5. ,, ,, Universes.

As H P Blavatsky speaks of
the "Nirvâna . . . between two Chains", [Ibid p 173] we may suppose
that the periods of rest between Globes and Rounds are minor Nirvânas. She
further describes the Âtyantika and Nitya Pralayas as:

The individual
Pralaya or Nirvâna; after having reached which there is no more future
existence possible, no rebirth till after the Mahâpralaya ; . . . the Nitya or
constant dissolution . . . (is) the change which takes place imperceptibly in
everything in this Universe, from the globe

down to the atom —
without cessation.[ Ibid. i.371]

Later on [Ibid, ii.
309, note] we read the following comment on the Paurânik category:

The dissolution of
all things is of four kinds, Parâshara is made to say[i.e., it is really sevenfold] — Naimittika
(Occasional) when Brahmâ slumbers (his Night, when, "at the end of his
Day, occurs a recoalescence of the Universe, called Brahmâ's contingent
recoalescence", because Brahmâ is this Universe itself); Prâkritika
(Elemental), when the return of this Universe to

its original nature
is partial and physical; Âtyantika (Absolute), identification of the embodied
with the incorporeal Supreme Spirit — Mahâtmic state, whether temporary or
until the following Mahâ Kalpa; also Absolute Obscuration — as of a whole Planetary
Chain, etc.; and Nitya (Perpetual), Mahâpralaya for the Universe, Death — for
man. Nitya is the extinction of life, like the "extinction of a
lamp", also "in sleep at night", Nitya Sarga is "constant
or perpetual creation", as Nitya Pralaya is "constant or perpetual
destruction of all that is born".

Though this passage
does not enable us to add precisely to the five distinct kinds of Pralaya
mentioned in the note to page 172 of the first volume, it, nevertheless, adds some
interesting items of information.

Moreover, the
intellectual comprehension of these dissolutions as taking place externally is
but the first step to the realization of the matter as pertaining to the Inner
Man. Knowledge and realization, from the point of view of practical

Occultism, pertain to
the Within, and if we do not sense these things within as changes of condition
in the Self which are independent of external time, we shall be far from
grasping the real truth. Universes, Systems, Planets, Globes, and the rest, are
all within our own nature, all contained in us.

And though The Secret
Doctrine tells us little of Nirvâna from the individual point of view,

according to the key
of Yoga, we can, nevertheless, work out the problem by analogy by converting
the phenomena of the external universe into terms of the internal noumena of
the Self. We shall thus be able to appreciate such a statement as:

When Buddhi absorbs
our Ego-tism (destroys it) with all its Vikâras, Avalokiteshvara becomes
manifested to us and Nirvâna or Mukti is reached. [The Secret Doctrine,Volume
1, xix]

That is to say when
Buddhi, the Light of the Logos — Avalokiteshvara, or Âtmâ — absorbs our
Ego-tism (Ahamkâra, the I-making faculty of Manas, the True Individuality,
which is not destroyed but identified with its Source) then the Vision Glorious
of the "Lord who looks down from above" [Ava-lokita means “seen” and
Îshvara “Lord”. In one sense, Ava-lokiteshvara signifies the Manifested Logos
or Mahat ] is sensed by the "Opened Eye" of the Seer. The Vi-kâras
are

"changes of
form” or "deviations from any natural state"; literally they are
"makings apart", "differentiations" — the root of
separateness.

Thus it is that:

Bodhi [corresponding
to Buddhi] is ... the name of a particular state of trance condition, called
Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the

culmination of
spiritual knowledge. [ Ibid]

In previous articles
on "The Great Renunciation", "The World-Soul", and
"The Vestures of the Soul ", I have dwelt on that highest possible
conception of self-sacrifice contained in the Doctrine of the Renunciation of
Nirvâna by the

Buddhas of Compassion
for better service to the race, and on the nature of the Nirvânic Robes of
Initiation; all of which may be read in

In the present paper,
therefore, I shall not attempt to say anything further on this the grandest of
all doctrines that mortal ears can dare to hear.

But we should never
forget that here we have a teaching which, if the Esoteric Philosophy had given
no other, would constitute an ideal which dwarfs all others into
insignificance. It gives cause to marvel that the " cold heart" of
humanity has not yet more fully welcomed the warmth of this ray from the Cosmic
Sun — the

Heart of the Heavenly
Man. Doubtless the reason is that it is too high for the general, who have
shown themselves so strongly moved by far lesser ideals.

The sunlight streams
down upon our "cities of the dead" and the "corpses" hide
themselves away behind the walls of prejudice, and scepticism, lust and
materiality that they have built, for they know that if but a solitary ray fall
upon the "bud of the lotus", in the heart, it will swell and expand
and grow, and then good-bye to their "dead" pleasures and the
charnel-house they love so

dearly.

But we must hasten to
conclusion, and no fitter ending to these Notes could be chosen than the
opening Stanzas of Dzyan, which describe the Nirvânic State of the Universe,
before manifestation. And describing the Nirvânic State of the Universe they
also describe the Nirvânic State of Man, when his seven "Principles"
have blended into one, and united themselves with their Parents, the seven Rays
of the Logos, on the Great Day "Be With Us", for it is they who speak
these mysterious words to their child, who becomes greater than the sevenfold
Parent.

Then there is no
Limit, no Ring "Pass Not" — all is One in the Supreme Completion, the
Plerôma of Plerômas — Para-nish-panna.[Lit, Para=supreme, and
Nish-panna=completion, perfection]

Time is not, for it
lies asleep in the Infinite Bosom of Duration. Universal Mind is not, for there
are no Ah-hi to contain it.

There are no Ah-hi,
for the "Seven Ways to Bliss", the "Seven Sublime Lords and the
Seven Truths", which are identical, are withdrawn into their Source, the
Eternal Parent. The Seven Rays of the [Page 28] Logos are One. The Mahâ Chohan

has withdrawn the
seven Dhyânîs, the seven Principles of his Divine Nature, into himself.

Darkness alone fills
the Boundless All, for Father, Mother, and Son are once more One.

Darkness — not our
darkness, but the dark, Unmanifested, dark to us because of our spiritual
ignorance — Dark Space, the Father of Bright Space, the Younger, the Son, who
shines forth only when the order "Fiat Lux" is given at the Dawn of
Manifestation. Father, Mother, and Son are one; Spirit, Matter, and the
Universe

are one; and Âtmâ,
Buddhi and Manas blend in unity.

Alone, the One Form
of Existence stretches boundless, infinite, causeless, in Dreamless Sleep; and
Life pulsates unconscious in Universal Space, throughout the All-Presence.

Unconscious — in our
sense of consciousness, for it transcends all consciousness.